Personal
by Ricorel
Summary: It's personal with him
1. C1 Personal

* * *

He was the latest in family.

Section 2 was now experimenting with what configurations its cyborgs were to operate. Yes, the cyborg program which was accompanied by a prosthetics program was still part of section 2.

But, the terrorists had evolved.

So, the latest in Section 2's configurations was having 3 cyborgs in a 'family' instead of the traditional 'fratello'.

So, Leo was the youngest and the only boy in the group. His two older sisters Angel and Heather were away with their father, of sorts, which in reality is their handler.

With this, there was a risk of loss of control. Was. With some significant advances with conditioning even their senior Triela was still alive, now already a year overdue for her death.

But funnily enough, he was sent on a mission, just to reach the pre-determined area and wait for the target to arrive. But he was send without a handler. No other families have had a mission without their 'fathers' before.

He was trudging along in the rain with a combat pack on his back enjoying being alone without his handler.

It was very dangerous nowadays, with the mad Padanian terrorist on a spree of hiring mercenaries and private companies with actual and real combat expertise.

Plus, instead of what he usually used, they changed his loadout, he didn't like it of course.

Curse the conditioning.

He liked his new body of course, he owed he Social Welfare Agency that.

He used to feel indebted to them. He still was, but he felt that had a lack of freedom.

* * *

2 hours later.

He pulled the HK416 tighter against his chest. Aware of his surroundings.

With the recent deaths of another 2 cyborgs. Which were the second generation ones.

He was very very careful.

He was in a body that could take the least punishment of all the others, which is why he operated at range.

And that was why he had a disassembled AS50 with him. It was bloody heavy.

He had an hour till he reached his destination and 2 days of waiting for the target to come.

Sighing as he remembered what Isaac, his handler, always liked to say, 'hurry up and wait'.

But he thought that this was a bit too much.

Wasn't it?

* * *

2 days later.

With the anti-materiel sniper rifle already set up. He peered into his binoculars waiting for the target to show up with the lorry.

It rumbled down the road.

He took the camouflage netting of his AS50. At this range, he had to get ready. It was more than a thousand meters out. When he reached the spot he couldn't believe that a place like that existed. He could see everything from there, including the city.

He took his time to get personal with the crook on the other end of his scope.

Then he fired once. Twice. A bit of an overkill but that was his orders.

The next three rounds left in the 5 round magazine ended up into the 2 escort cars with the truck.

Those cars wouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon.

Pulling out a cell phone he called Isaac.

He let it ring a couple of times before snapping the phone shut. It was done.

His real parents was avenged once again. They would be in need of avenging again. Soon.

Time to pack up and leave.

He envied the others.

Especially Rico, who had a very happy disposition and outlook.

Together with her SVD which he very much wanted to try out.

In the SWA he was a loner, even within his 'family', he didn't talk all that much.

Leo went to the canteen to get a meal before going to a corner of the canteen to eat it alone.

He was so self-engrossed in his brooding that for a while, he didn't notice one very weird fact.

The canteen was empty. Never has that happened before.

Leaving the meal on the table he rushed to the firing range and almost all the other areas where there were almost always someone training.

Until he arrived at the place which he personally called the 'Mad House' because the handlers like to stuff all kinds of things ,like flashbangs and all sorts of stun grenades, inside that single floor building which simulates corridoors and rooms et cetera. But he heard it was called a killing house or something.

It was full of people, surrounded with people, everyone was there.

Then remembered, the section-wide training that was scheduled for today.

He sighed to himself audibly, 'Shit'.

He ran to the armory.


	2. C2 Exercise, friends and spaghetti

Yes, Leo was a cyborg that couldn't handle as much punishment as the other first or second generation cyborgs but still, he had the enhancements of speed and strength and hearing and the sort. Plus, he was the lightest of them all.

So, naturally, he was also the fastest.

He got to armory in the fastest time he possibly could, his normal weapons like the HK416 and the Arctic Warfare Magnum sniper rifle was in the dorm was too far away.

At the armory he took out the previous mission's AS50 which was the only reason he got that personal weapons locker at the armory in the first place. He didn't really keep anything else there and like everyone else he kept them in his dorm.

Grabbing the the case in which the disassembled AS50 was, he also took a small box of rounds with him. Three magazines were already inside the case with the AS50.

Running back to that Mad House was sure going to be tiring. The AS50 seriously felt very heavy, feeling cumbersome running with the case and the small box.

* * *

A few minutes later

Isaac was motioning at Leo to hurry up; because of Leo they were already late for the pre-exercise briefing.

Rushing pass him he heard a soft mutter, 'Where in the world have you been?'

Going into the briefing room next to the Mad House training area, he quickly occupied a vacant seat.

'Thank you, Leo for gracing us with your presence', the voice came from a man at the front of the room.

Likely, he was in charge of this particular exercise, but that man isn't a familiar face.

In reply, Leo gave a quick sorry with a little bit of embarrassment.

'Now that we can start the briefing, a simple exercise consisting of the basic format of a hostage rescue with nine hostages with an unknown number of enemies will be conducted today ...

The briefing bored him immensely, ultimately ending up with him siiting out of it.

I mean, indoors, an anti-materiel AS50 sniper rifle isn't much good, right?

It was just a waste of time. Leaving the AS50 with the armorer since he didn't want to have anything to do with it, he just proceeded back to the dorms with Joel and Deborah, from a different 'family', but they had become fast friends from Leo's very first mission.

In that mission, one of the Padanian leadership was found, his family and Joel's family had taken part, there was also a fratello which happened to be Rico and her handler Jean.

Deborah was also there, being Joel's younger sister.

Leo and Joel being at the sidelines watching while Deborah was new and was sitting out of the action with them.

During that time they had talked about various things and they just clicked.

Leo had a borrowed Heckler & Koch MP5 sub-machine gun because he had persistently refused to use the weapon that Isaac had wanted him to use. What was it? The inaccurate of the inaccurate, of all things, he wanted Leo to use a Russian Kalashnikov, an AK-47. It was because of that he was allowed to have a choice of what he wanted later on, around the time when that American handler joined Section 2.

But that story is for later.

Joel was using a similar MP5 to Leo and Deborah was just with them.

Angel and Heather was to sneak into a four-storey building from the back while Rico watched the terrorists inside and Joel's older brother, Joseph, together with his father/handler rushed the building from the front .

But it got messed up half-way through. The target jumped out of the buidling through a second floor window and started running to the city. If he got there we might not be able to get him.

That was when Joel pulled me towards the target and made chase. For some reason, Deborah followed and had a procured a pistol out of thin air.

Being the fastest i managed to catch up. But under orders not kill him, I launched myself onto him and that was it. He was on the ground. My friends caught up and a moment later we were getting shot at. It really got messed up after that.

We managed to survive unscathed with the exception of Joel.

Guess what. When we were running with the hostage in tow in Deborah's hands. We got ambushed again.

Things got ugly and we resorted to melee and hand to hand combat; we were out of bullets.

That was when Joel suddenly fell into the river with his attacker. We rushed to see if he was okay.

When he rose to the surface we could hear him laughing.

We heard a shout, 'I won't be trying that again anytime soon!' We just cracked up at that.

That's how we go this friendship under fire. Comradeship. But our handlers who came soon after thought we were mad.

Certainly, we got a punishment of our lives for lying around like that.

But, it was funny.

In reality, Joel, Leo and Deborah were like siblings. All were about the same age. In the same boat.

We don't get to work with each other much. At least for me and them. Joel and Debs were inseperable.

But this new lease of life from the SWA certainly is something to be grateful for.

I remember my old parents, a little, I was a case like Rico where we were born with severe defects and had to undergo major surgery and get a new body with prosthetics.

But with my sisters and these friends. Life was certainly better.

Finally, I had reached my dorm.

It was actually more like an apartment with 3 small bedrooms, a living room kind of room, a small storeroom, a toliet and even a small kitchen.

I was like a loner to others, but my sisters understood me very well. They weren't that much of loners like I was, but they did have a trait this family of ours seemed to have: a attribute of actually being very quiet most of the times. To outsiders we would be characterised as shy. That wasn't it, we just didn't feel comfortable with others, we had this feeling like we had to protect Isaac and even more than that, was what I felt as an obligation to protect Angel and Heather. Probably why I always have a knife or two on my person.

Well, since the rest of my family wasn't here. I was stuck with cooking dinner.

Spaghetti Bolognese it was then.


	3. C3 Messed Up

It had gotten oh-so-very-messy.

* * *

_**Flashback**_

His raspy voice sounded so weak, he had no doubt of what was going to happen. He wouldn't live through the night, too much blood was lost.

'Get the hell out of here,' mumbled Isaac; literally drowning in his own blood, 'that is an order.'

Already, subconsciously, Leo was following that command. A glance into his eyes could tell you that, a glazed look had already come upon him. That was how effective the conditioning.

Leo let go of his handler's hand and walked off into the night, leaving Isaac in an ever-growing pool of his own blood.

With one hand on the FN Five-Seven pistol taken from Isaac, he started running to the van.

_**End of flashback**_

* * *

With his lifespan no longer burdened with things like conditioning, Leo was a free spirit.

_**Flashback**_

The van was operated by the SWA. It was maybe the only vehicle in the area because of the blockade.

Leo swiftly got to the door of the driver, opened it and pulled the trigger when the barrel of the Five-Seven found the driver's head. He did the same for the passenger next to him.

_Four bullets left._

He had to get to Isaac's apartment, fast. Leo didn't have much time left to complete his handler's orders.

_**End of flashback**_

* * *

Following the aftermath of that disaster, Lorenzo and the others had to pick up the pieces. Then piece them together, _what in the world happened? _This was a very critical question, for if you took the situation at face-level, you just had the most dramatic defect of a child assassin and maybe his handler.

But Isaac only took one of them, Leo, not the others. _Why?_

* * *

_**Flashback**_

He didn't understand why he had to drop off his HK416 assault rifle at Isaac's apartment earlier on. Isaac was making any sense, but he was adamant about one thing : Do no go back to the SWA.

His handler had acquired a M99 through other means other than requisitioning it from Section 2. With that and his HK416 and the couple hundred of rounds that they had left in the apartment, they could perhaps take on a couple of city blocks.

But he had to hurry, his pursuers, both Section 2 and the Padanian terrorists were on his tail. And without a headstart, even a minor one, he wouldn't see sunset tomorrow.

With 3 duffel bags he lugged them to the van and started heading to a place that caught his eye a few months back. He was going to be mercenary. But one with freedom.

_**End of flashback**_

* * *

He was at the top of the world now, being a mercenary for hire. Neither the HK416 nor the M99 had failed him yet.

But the next mission he had received was very likely going to kill him. But he had to know why he had to run.

The mission was a success, but with the defect of two assets, and leaving two near-useless, other things had overshadowed the accomplishment. A year had passed but the trap was set, the headquarters of Section 2 itself. That mercenary that had sprung out of nowhere was going to be in some very serious trouble.


End file.
